Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubaker al-Qirbi said on Wednesday that exiled former South Yemeni president Ali Salem al-Baid is living in Beirut under the protection of Hizbullah reported Naharnet.

Qirbi's comments were published in pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.

U.S. envoy to Sanaa Gerald Feierstein had told Al-Hayat in March 2012 that the United States believes Hizbullah and Hamas are helping Iran to expand its influence in Yemen at the expense of the country's Gulf neighbors.

Baid, the last president of the region before union and a member of the Southern Movement is opposed to national talks that began in Sanaa on March 18 and still campaigns for southern independence.

After the former North and South Yemen united in 1990, the south broke away in 1994, triggering a short-lived civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops. ( Naharnet) ( Picture: credit Julie's IB econ BLog)

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